Project-based job culture a steady ‘work in progress’

The traditional binary lens through which we look at work and employment is no longer relevant.

Expert360 co-founder and chief executive Bridget Loudon sees huge workplace changes within five years.

The traditional binary lens through which we look at work and employment is no longer relevant, according to Expert360 co-founder and chief executive Bridget Loudon, who said there was mounting evidence that employees were rejecting the rigid nine-to-five grind.

Ms Loudon said future workplaces could be dominated by an entirely new category of staff — the project-based worker.

“We have traditionally had a very rigid concept of what a workforce should be, but individuals and organisations are looking for more flexibility,” she told The Australian. “The gig economy is a manifestation of this, but it’s a very loaded word and conjures up a view of a dystopian world.”

Expert360 is a freelance jobs marketplace and management platform. Ms Loudon said that project-based working would build on the existing framework of an on-demand business model to create a pool of professional talent that would not be tied down to a single organisation.

“In the future, I imagine that every organisation will have its permanent workforce, as well as a project-based one,” she said.

“Around their pool of project-based workers, companies will compete to build community, culture and professional development.”

With 60 per cent of Australians in non-permanent work, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Ms Loudon said that the conversation needed to focus on building a viable infrastructure for the new category of workers.

“Within the next five years we will all be either gigging between companies or between different units of the same organisation,” she said. “So while we are talking about the shift from a permanent to a non-permanent workforce, the bigger macro shift happening right now is the move from role-based work to project-based work.”

The project-based work arrangement may deliver the desired flexibility, but it does make things harder for them when it comes to superannuation and securing a mortgage.

Ms Loudon said that institutions were starting to cater to the growing worker market.

“We have done partnerships with Macquarie Bank on how they develop financial products for project workers. We have worked with GROW Super and Future Super on how these workers can save for their retirement. I think other sectors like real estate will start building the necessary infrastructure in time.”

Unions will also have a role to play in the transition and Ms Loudon said there was no reason to see them as a barrier.

“I think the overarching goals of the unions and organisations like us is the same, we want workers to be treated fairly and paid well,” she said.

Ms Loudon said organisations would need to do their bit in the changing environment.

She added that the current anxiety of on-demand companies around being potentially forced to classify their contractors as full-time workers was misplaced.

“Companies shouldn’t be scared to treat their casual workers like humans ... we should be looking to build a new framework.”